Kobi are a local band with a face familiar to the local music scene, after a seven year break they are back and the have spoken to invernessGiGs about there return to playing and how they got ousted, by a belly dancer, from the mainstage at thier first Belladrum….
Reading the promotional material on Facebook, KOBI have made a big play on the number of changes to the music scene during your 7 year break how has the the break affected your sound and musical direction?
I think just a simple matter of being older has affected our influences, the first time we were a band we were pulling in different directions and unable to communicate as well as we can now, we’ve seen what’s available on our door step opportunity wise and are keen to get involved.
How do you describe the current sound of the band and you alluded in the recent netsounds unsigned podcast that the sound may change, how do you think the sound of the band will develop?
The current sound of the band is written round minor keys and a lot of empathises of less is more goes into things, which give us more space and really lets the drums and bass flourish behind reverb like vocals and moody guitar sounds.
In regards to where we are going, everyone is feeling good about the musical journey we are on so we are likely to be writing in major keys to give things an upbeat overtone.
What prompted the drunken text that brought you guys back together? (this was previously mentioned on the recent netSounds unsigned podcast)
Like a lot of musicians when they form bands at young ages things didn’t go to plan and I think we felt that like there was a lot of things we wanted to do and didn’t achieve and that was hanging over us so for us it was inevitable that we would at least get together in a room and try and play some music together at some point in our lives again.
It was a surprise to everyone in the band that we immediately started working on new music with a different direction and this is what has driven us to come back to live performing.
Are we right in thinking that Belladrum will be your second live gig since you got back together, how did you feel about playing at Belladrum?
It was our second gig since getting back together, we’ve been lucky to get on the bill but the seed was actually planted for us to play Belladrum a long time ago as we got to do an acoustic set back in the first year of Belladrum and when we turned up to play the belly dancer workshop over run so we were cancelled and ended up playing the car park. It was said then they would get us on next time so 7 years later here we are getting the slot “next time” round and we were experiencing the nerves and excitement as it builds up to the slot.
Is there a song that best represents you and why?
The first piece of music we started to work on was a track called “I Remember” which really pointed us in the path we are on just now, we did a live recording for Netsounds Unsigned podcast.
Have you anything else to plug?
Tickets are still on sale for Summer Showcase gig at Ironworks, Inverness on August 18th with The Little Mill of Happiness and Graham Brown and we also play at The Big Splash event in Aviemore on August 19th with The Little Kicks, would be great to see as many folk as possible at those events.
You can also check out the Facebook page.
Thanks once again to Kobi for the interview, very much appreciated.